Pend Oreille County, Washington

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $30,705 (31.3%) under the Washington median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.4%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 14.8 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 50 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 242 workers (22.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $32,505. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,710 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $768M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $115,873 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $20,919, a 5.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 54.91x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 8 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 29.1% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.5x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 80.8% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 26.7% of housing units are vacant, above the Washington rate of 7.3%, and down from 30.7% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 69.3% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 4.6% of the vacant stock, or 1.2% of all housing units against the 26.7% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $44,647 can pay without cost burden (~$1,116/mo), and 30.9% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 30.8% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 48.5% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 10.2% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Pend Oreille County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Pend Oreille County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 54.91x concentration and 29 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 30.8% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans forestry and logging, food and beverage retailers, and social assistance, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 29.1% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.